John Ryan resigned as Doncaster chairman because he felt isolated in the boardroom and believes his fellow directors lacked ambition. Ryan brought the curtain down on his 15-year reign hours before Rovers' Sky Bet Championship fixture against South Yorkshire rivals Barnsley on Saturday.

Reports this week hinted at a fall-out between Ryan and the rest of the board over the protracted takeover of the club by Sequentia Capital. And the 61-year-old confirmed the disharmony is centred around a meeting this week between Rovers representatives and the Irish-led consortium.

The meeting went ahead without Ryan - much to the annoyance of the man who originally brought Sequentia to the table. Ryan also questioned the football club's impending takeover of the town's rugby league team, which is set to be officially announced in the coming days. He said:

Firstly I would like to say it's a very sad day. ...... I felt something needed to change as I was feeling increasingly isolated. But when I sold the majority of my share to make it a partnership of three, I knew I could be out-voted. I think it is common knowledge that I was very disappointed the Sequentia deal didn't go through. I felt I had one more big push in me - one more promotion - and if they had been allowed to come in with the money then it would have been great.

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Doncaster Rovers have confirmed John Ryan has resigned as chairman of the club. Reports began to circulate on Saturday afternoon that Ryan had ended his 15-year tenure with Rovers in the build-up to their Sky Bet Championship clash with Yorkshire rivals Barnsley at Oakwell.

And Doncaster confirmed the news with a statement on their official website. It read:

"We can confirm that this afternoon the club received a letter from John Ryan resigning as chairman of Doncaster Rovers. Everyone at the club would like to thank John for the outstanding work he has done as chairman and for his hard work and efforts through the years."